The Champion Returns 🥇🥇 Startline: Alistair Brownlee | 2023 PTO European Open

I landed in Ibiza on Tuesday before the race on Saturday, just I thought give myself a bit of time in the sun. It's a really easy flight from Leeds which is cool. Just going to put the tri-suit on for a bit of a test, new suit so I haven't worn it yet so just get it wet and stretch it out a bit and then I'll take it off for a bit of a main set. I always wanted to race, this race was always on my calendar. When I had a bit of a niggle in early March, I'm trying to be very conservative at the moment, I then thought right my goal after this is going to be the PTO race in Ibiza but I don't want to rush back and rush the running too much so I'm going to just do everything I can to be swimming bike fit and I'm going to just be careful, not do anything specifically on the run, look after my body and what will be will be on race day. How was your first day in Ibiza? It's been nice thank you, nice place to be, nice to see the sunshine and yeah it's good. So is it just that when you turn it, it goes, it just goes and spins? It's just not right, yeah. Everyone goes out and leave the key in the boxes. I'm going to lock you out and not let you back in. On Thursday I had a bit of training to do in the morning, a little bit of intensity on the bike, a bit of a swim as well at the pool but then the afternoon was taken up by interviews with the media and various things and I think that's one of the things that the PTA are doing a great job at pushing, getting the athletes and the event into the media to try and reach those new fans of triathlon which is what it's all about and very cool so very happy to play my part in that. So this is Race Ranger, it's the new anti-drafting software that we're introducing so we're just putting these onto the front of the bike, back of the bike so that the athletes and the referees can see draft distances. Oh, that's good. Well done. Hey, how are you? Yeah. Pretty nice, isn't it? Yeah, it's beautiful. I thought it would be more wavy, but it's dead flat. Do you reckon it's wet, too? It's wet, isn't it? I don't know. It was not wetsuit for the Aquathon, I know they have different rules. What are the rules? I was thinking that. I don't know. I think they follow World Triathlon. Is it different because it's longer? Yeah, over 1500, I think. So, this is the new race suit for this year. I've worked with HOOB, which is a long-term sponsor of mine, to make the fastest race suit possible. It's a combination of different materials and it's been specially made for size for me. Yeah, it's nice. Hopefully really fast, really comfortable. I've made it as comfortable as possible so it doesn't chafe or cut me up anywhere. And of course, it's got all the sponsors on it as well. The famous red and a bit of colour on the arms. What's wrong? Oh my God, do you need help? I can't wear this for the week. How does it work? How do you do that? I just put it on. It's there. Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah, apparently it is the first time Jan, Christian and myself have raced each other I think over any distance in triathlon. So, yeah, I hadn't really given it a lot of thought, but I think it's a great thing for the sport of triathlon, really covering off the different time frames of it. Jan won that gold medal in 2008. For me, 2012 feels like a long time ago, so that must feel like a long time ago for him. But yeah, great that he's still racing, that he's still trying to win the most competitive races as well, and that Christian's there. I think it will be great to see how the race pans out. Champion for Great Britain. Nice conditions here in the Swift. It is a two kilometre race, two laps at the Federatus beach. Well protected, no surfing expected. We are racing here for the first European Tour ever. The first race of the PTO Tour. And the gun has gone off. Nice conditions here in the Swift. So you're diving into the sea. It's a lovely flat Mediterranean this morning. I was either a bit slow off the start or something, or someone jumped on top of me, but I actually had a really tough first few hundred metres getting out there. I felt like I had to swim around loads of people who were swimming really slow after maybe going off too hard. But I got out, and by the time I'd gone around the second or third buoy, I'd worked my way up and then got into third position. I was on Jan's feet there, and I knew Aaron was leading, so I was pretty happy. I thought I'd be able to maybe push the swim on as well, but to be honest, it felt like Aaron was swimming really fast in the front there, so I definitely couldn't have speeded it up. They're coming out of the water very, very shortly, and we will see them dash into T1. The next is now out at 40 seconds back. That's a really big gap to open up. It was a long time there to be behind. Going out onto the bike, I knew there was a group of us, and I didn't actually feel great for the first half an hour of that. I just thought, you know, settle in, bide my time, and by the time we got onto the second half of the ride, I was feeling strong and managed to push on up one of the climbs, split it so there was only a few of us away. T2 now for the men. This is going to be very interesting indeed. We're talking transition. Who gets it down the smoothest? I felt pretty good for those first two or three K, and when I first started seeing the splits back to the guys, I thought, well, this must be fast, and one of the things I haven't done enough of is that kind of tempo running, so I don't really have a feel of what that pace maybe should be like or as much as I would normally. This is a big move here from Max Newman. Yeah, he's really closing down that distance. It was hovering, wasn't it? It was hovering around that 20 seconds, but he's closed it down so quick, putting a big surge to get to the shoulder of Alistair Brownlee. Max Newman running side by side with Alistair Brownlee. They are the front runners in the race. And then a few K later, I just started feeling worse and worse, and by probably 10 K into the run, I was then just doing everything I could to finish, basically. Obviously, I raced to do well and try and win, but I knew it was going to be tough today, off-nose, not loads of run training, so I'm actually quite pleased just to, you know, stand on a start line, race hard, be able to push my body as hard as I can. Unfortunately, that wasn't very fast, but yeah, for most of the race, like 80% of the race, I'm where I want to be. I've just got a bit of time to work on those last 20% now. That's a very uncomfortable chair. It is? Yeah. Oh, that's a good chair.